Unspoken Words
by USS.Gallifrey.221b
Summary: A short story about the Doctor and his inability to tell Rose how he feels towards her. He just can't tell her. He has to show her.


**Unspoken Words**

The Doctor is good at many things (he boasts that he's good at _everything_, actually). He can calculate each number of pi backwards. He can name each star in the sky and give you the exact distance of their location from where you're standing. He can speak over five billion languages fluently. He can travel through time and space. He can tell you the weather for any given planet at any given point in time. He can cheer up a crying child and make even the grumpiest of elderly men crack a smile. He can save the Earth a million times over and never grow tired of doing so. He can scare off invading armies with just the mere mention of his name. He can talk for hours (possibly even _days_) on end about the smallest and most irrelevant topics. The Doctor can do many things, but there's one thing he can't do.

Everything in his world seems to revolve around one person these days. She's not special in any way. She can't do nearly a hundredth of the things he can do. She has a knack for falling captive by enemy forces. She's not of noble blood, nor does she have any riches. She lived in a run-down apartment with her mother and worked in a local shop until he came along. She isn't what most beings in the galaxy would consider to be "important." But the Doctor finds her to be the most important thing in his life. Yes, a silly old human managed to worm her way into his fantastic life and he doesn't regret letting her do so. Rose Tyler is not _just_ a human in his eyes; she's everything.

The Doctor is good at many things, but there's one thing he can't do. He can babble on and on and on about anything and everything. But there's one thing that he just can't talk about, with Rose especially. It's not about his lost planet or the genocide he committed – no, he can tell her all about that. It's not about past companions who travelled with him before Rose was even born. No, he can tell her story upon story of his previous adventures. When it comes to Rose Tyler, there's just one thing he can't do. He can't tell her what she means to him, or how much he cares for her, or how devastated he would be if she left him. It's not that the words can't come out properly; there are just no words capable of describing the immense affection and adoration he feels towards her, because merely saying "I love you" isn't adequate enough.

It was late one night on the TARDIS when it came to him. Rose was asleep in her room as he idly worked the controls of his ship, his body going through the motions as his mind focused on his current problem. It was then that he remembered a race known as the Olakians. The Olakians had no written language and they didn't have a mouth – they couldn't speak at all. The only way they could communicate with one another was through gestures, not sign language – they weren't capable of hand movement. That was the moment the Doctor realized there was only one way he could tell Rose Tyler how he felt towards her. If words were incapable of telling her, then he was just going to have to show her.

* * *

**0****1.**

They were sitting on top of the ruins of a lost temple on a planet where the sky was golden and the wind was bitter. The previous inhabitants of the planet were long gone; it was just the two of them. Rose looked out at the lush landscape, her feet lightly tapping the stone beneath her. Her arms drew close to her body and her hands coiled together in a tight fist. The Doctor gave one look at her figure and instantly drew her close, his left arm wrapping around her shoulders securely. He didn't need to say anything; she knew. _I care about you._

* * *

**0****2.**

He stared down the opposing forces on the screen with a hard look; the look of a man who had seen too much death in his lifetime. Another alien race determined to destroy Earth and he had to be the one to stop them. His head turned as Rose gave a small tug on his hand. Her face was set with a worried and forced smile as she squeezed his hand lightly; reassuringly. "Right!" He said with too much vigour. He began to pull certain levers and push buttons on the TARDIS's console, his hand never letting go of hers. _You give me strength._

* * *

**0****3.**

In an alien marketplace, with strange food and even stranger people, they found happiness. With his hand in hers, he pulled her from stall to stall, talking fast with a certain zeal that he hadn't felt in ages. She laughed and smiled, nodding at appropriate moments, as he talked on and on. Her eyes stopped on a market stall selling strange flowers with a pleasing aroma. Noticing the look of contentment on her face, he quickly purchased a pink flower with plush petals. Placing it carefully in her hair, she gave him the widest of smiles. _Your smile makes me whole._

* * *

**0****4.**

He almost lost her today, his pink and yellow girl. Their encounters with death are growing in number and that worries him more than anything. The doors of the TARDIS open to reveal a smiling human. She rushes towards him, his arms quickly enveloping her into the tightest of hugs, as he swings her gently back and forth. He doesn't want to let go as he buries his face into the crook of her neck. He can feel her heart beating rapidly as the blood courses through her veins, reminding him that she is alive; very much alive. _I can't lose you._

* * *

**0****5.**

His stare is deadly, his face void of emotion, as he watches them suffer. "Doctor..." Rose says with fear, her voice high and tight. He looks at her scared expression and is terrified to realize _he's_ the cause of her fear. The realization of his actions hits him with a powerful force as his head falls forward in shame, his hand searching blindly for her hand. "Help them," she whimpers. And he does, changing the settings on the sonic screwdriver to burst open the dam, allowing water to flow over the burning station. _You anchor me when I falter._

* * *

**0****6.**

"Are you deducting?" he asks with a wry grin. "I think I am," she replies with a warm laugh. She examines the item in her hand with squinted eyes, her bottom lip between her teeth. Picking up the eraser from the console she runs it over the ball. With a smile she looks up and says, "Yup. Definitely made of graphite." She tosses the ball into his waiting hand. He kisses her forehead, "Rose Tyler, you are brilliant!" She laughs, following him out of the TARDIS. _Your intelligence is attractive._

* * *

**0****7.**

The Doctor stares in awe as Rose kneels before the dying alien, her hand softly caressing its head as she whispers softly. Without looking back at him, she asks, "Is there anything we can do?" He shakes his head slowly, "No." He steps forward, kneeling down beside her. "I'm sorry," he says quietly. He squeezes her shoulder lightly, as he watches the colour drain from the alien's face. She holds its hand, feeling the life fade away. He wraps his arm around her tightly. _Your humanity humbles me._

* * *

**0****8.**

She finds him sitting in the jump seat in the console room, a lonely old man lost in his thoughts. He hears her walk towards him, but doesn't move. He notices her sit next to him on the seat, but remains still. When she lays her head on his shoulder and asks him what's wrong, the breath rushes out of him in a large burst. And he tells her, tells her everything. Tells her how scared he is, how he can't believe the Daleks survived the Time War, how scared he is for her safety. She just holds his hand and tells him that she trusts him and believes in him. _I trust you completely._

* * *

**0****9.**

They're standing on a beach on a planet whose name Rose can't pronounce correctly. The sky is filled with magnificent purples and bright reds. The waves roll over the shore and back out again. Rose stares in wonder at the sight before her. She turns towards him with a smile, "It's beautiful!" She leans into his side, content with staring out at the endless ocean. He takes her to beautiful worlds in an attempt to show her how _he_ sees her. _You are beautiful in every way._

* * *

**1****0.**

His hearts clench painfully as he watches his beautiful girl cry; crying because of him. He can't even touch her to comfort her. She's trapped in a parallel world and he's burning up a sun just to say goodbye, using a small crack in the universe to send her a holographic image of himself. "Will I ever see you again?" She's trying to smile, to leave him with a final happy image of her, and it hurts. "You can't." She gasps for breath as her mascara starts to run down her face, "What are you going to do?" He tries to laugh, for her sake, "I've got the TARDIS. Same old life. The Last of the Time Lords." She stares at him as the tears continue their journey down her cheeks, "On your own?" He nods. _I can't stand to see you cry._

* * *

**1****1.**

She's about to speak, but a sob wrenches itself from her throat. She wipes her hands over her eyes desperately, "I… I love you." And that's the moment his hearts break. She stares at him, waiting for a reaction, a declaration, _anything_. He takes a deep breath, trying in vain to hold back his own tears. "Quite right, too. And… I suppose, if it's my last chance to say it, Rose Tyler…" It's at that exact moment that the hologram breaks apart and he is alone in the TARDIS. A tear rolls its way down his cheek as his breathing become ragged. He didn't even get to tell her. But he knows that she knows. _I love you._


End file.
